Dear LinkedIn, Stop With The Annoying Work Anniversaries Messages…

Does this at all sound familiar? have you been getting annoyed at those consistent work anniversary messages LinkedIn so intrusively shoves in your face on a daily basis? I know I get them daily considering I’m now at almost 3,800 connections. I didn’t shoot for this many contacts I ensure you that, in fact, I’m regularly purging my contacts list as there are so many who have added me, or I’ve connected with that simply just don’t belong in my circle. See, I believe a social network should be treated the same way I act in real life. It’s a social network and if you connect with someone you should say hello every now and then.

“This isn’t a popularity contest, or is it?

Well in regards to that annoying little message about your connections work anniversaries, I’ve heard many say the same thing. Oddly enough, I flipped the script on that exact mindset I used to bare as most do and just accepted the fact that LinkedIn is going to test and try anything and everything to get people to engage. It’s a Social Network so I use it regularly as so. When I began sending people direct messages tailored to them specifically congratulating them on their work anniversary, I also threw in things such as…

“let’s grab a virtual coffee or beer and catch up as we’ve yet to speak in person in quite some time”.

Well, my friends, that resulted in a 13% increase in business in 2016 alone and even more in coffee and beer dates. I know I know, who does that, well, I do. I’ve been doing this since I first moved to Austin, TX back in 2011. Austin taught me many things about being a people person and honest hustle & one thing I know for sure is that when you have any meeting in Austin it’s always over a beer on an awesome rooftop venue or coffee at some posh spot downtown where the hustle and bustle happens, from 5 am – 2 am.

See, we keep calling this whole social network thing social media and there’s a huge issue here as it’s far from that.

Think about it this way: The Current State Of The Internet.

That mobile device you hold in your hand, that’s now your TV, that TV you have at home, replaced your grandparent’s radio, and that radio your grandparents had replaced the newspaper. Brand Awareness folks, we must learn that each and every one of us is now a brand.

Me connecting and saying simple things like Happy Birthday or congrats on the new work anniversary, those were short, easy and effortless social signals and reminded them of me when they thought of a marketing exec who has a small agency offering so many services to brands from Startups, SMB’s to Fortune 500’s. Too often now in the world where we’re so connected, we act so lazy and are more disconnected than ever before. Think about this, how often do you find yourself not answering your phone and preferring to just text someone? we barely and rarely even bother to engage unless there’s something in return and when we don’t see an opportunity to convert something we just scroll right on by.

When we start treating social networks like a real life cocktail party we’ll start seeing tremendous growth and when I say growth I’m not talking about bottom line revenue, I’m talking about value people, value, like relationships, partnerships, and I’m talking about value in people, things that will move the needle if you’re patient. I’ve been connected to you all probably for over 4 years now and do you know how many times I’ve asked for anything?

ONCE, once I’ve messaged each of you and told about a new business I’ve launched and when you think about that message I sent a couple months ago it wasn’t even an ask, I simply offered you some of my time to speak about some of your companies or departments most pressing issues as that’s what I’ve been executing on for over a decade now for over a baker’s dozen of clients.

With 2017 around the corner I want to implore you all to engage your feeds. When you scroll thru FaceBook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Twitter etc… if you see something that you bothered to “Like” or looks stunning, say something, take the 5 seconds literally to just leave a comment. You’ll stand out because the other hundred people were too lazy to do so as all they did was leave a damn like. Treat it like a real life cocktail party, if someone at a party showed you a pic of their cute little dog dressed in a Santa outfit, would you tap their photo and walk away? NO, so why do that on a digital platform where you have an even greater audience?

This whole social network thing is still in its infancy and if you don’t start building a reputation as a person of value and engage I promise you this, you’ll never even stand a chance in leveraging these platforms for your team, brand and revenue streams. This thing you call social media will take over mainstream media as TV did with Print. It already is actually. Think about the last time you watched a commercial on TV, you can’t, because you tivo right past it.

Thanks so much for taking the time out to listen to my rant, I’d love your feedback in the comment section, if you like and if you’re too lazy to comment, feel free to share it, you never know what types of convos you’ll spark up with your personal networks when you share something aside from the typical articles you share every day that gets zero engagement anyways 😉